Kenneth Clarke was branded ‘pig-headed’ by a fellow Tory MP last
night after saying the public must accept the danger that his plan to
free mentally ill prisoners could lead to someone being ‘bumped off’.

The Justice Secretary said it was ‘loopy’ to claim crime could be solved by sending all criminals to jail.

And
he airily dismissed reports that he had clashed with David Cameron over
his prison shake-up, saying: ‘I’m not going to start analysing the
Prime Minister. He’s not where I am in the party, that’s true.’

Defiant: Ken Clarke, left, is determined to press ahead with the 'rehab revolution' but Shipley MP Philip Davies, right, has branded his statement and plans as 'pig-headed'

Mr Clarke defended his policy of reducing the number of mentally ill and drug addicts in jail.

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‘Most
members of the public, if they met some of the mentally ill people in
prison would think, “What on earth is this person doing here?” People
would be shocked by how bad the conditions are in some prisons. People
think they are hotels. There are quite a few hard nicks out there that
would dispel that myth.’

Asked what would happen if a mentally
unstable offender released under his new regime stabbed someone to
death, Mr Clarke said: ‘The first time someone bumps someone off the
fortnight after they are let out, there will be absolute outrage.

'But you have to explain to the sensible public that you can’t give an absolute guarantee.

‘It’s
about greatly reducing the risk of incidents like this happening. We
can do that by providing these people with proper treatment.’

He acknowledged: ‘I suppose I’m more liberal than most Conservatives.’

Mr
Clarke said he is determined to press ahead with what he calls a
‘rehabilitation revolution’ designed to curb the high rate of
re-offending by prisoners.

Friction: Jack Straw, left, voiced fears Ken Clarke's plans could lead to lawlessness while Prime Minister David Cameron, right, slapped him down over abolishing minimum term sentences for murderers

He says it is a vital part of his plan to reverse the doubling in the prison population to 85,000 since the early Nineties. He said: ‘Crime is also caused by social, educational and economic
factors, but it’s loopy to think you can solve it by locking everyone
up. No one can argue that what we are doing now isn’t a failure.’

Contrary to Press reports, Mr Clarke said he did not intend to scrap all minimum recommended sentences for killers.

‘Murder
is murder. Parliament must have a role in setting that sentence. But
(the present guidelines) are nonsense. Why is it more serious for a
battered wife to pick up a kitchen knife and stab her husband than for
someone slowly to poison to death an old lady for her money?’

He
defended judges against claims that they are all ‘wets and can’t be
trusted’, saying: ‘I trust the judges more than some people do.

‘When I started they were seen as elderly, reactionary, savage men
who didn’t understand the lives of ordinary people and imposed wicked
long sentences.’

Mr Clarke, who is 70 and entered the Commons in
1970 when Mr Cameron was just three years old, played down persistent
reports that the Prime Minister believes he is taking far too soft a
line on crime and punishment.

And he denied Mr Cameron had
slapped him down over his proposal to abolish the minimum term
murderers must serve before they can be let back on to the streets on
parole.

‘Of course you do have to touch base with the Prime
Minister,’ Mr Clarke observed casually. ‘We discussed it and it was all
cleared, it didn’t take very long.

‘It was nothing like the
meetings I had with Margaret Thatcher over health reforms when we had
blazing rows. There isn’t a difference between us. I’m not going to
start analysing the Prime Minister. He’s not where I am in the party,
that’s true. He is Eurosceptic.

‘No one planned this prison
explosion. It is doing harm. The re-offending rates are catastrophic.
We have these overcrowded, dysfunctional prisons and we are not
breaking the cycle of lock ’em up, let ’em out.’

Mr Clarke’s
chief Tory opponent, Shipley MP Philip Davies, said: ‘Ken Clarke does
have a tendency to political pig-headedness. His law and order beliefs
are like his pro-Euro beliefs – he is equally wrong and equally adamant
about both.

'It is a false argument for him to claim that
those of us who want criminals sent to prison somehow do not believe in
rehabilitation. It is a question of where the rehabilitation takes
place.’

Conservative MPs are divided over laid-back grandee Mr
Clarke. Some say his experience is a huge asset, but others claim his
off-hand manner is as damaging as his lenient stance on prisons.

When
popular ‘Cameron Cutie’ Essex Tory MP Priti Patel asked him for an
assurance last week that scrapping laws designed to keep paedophiles
behind bars until they are no longer dangerous would not backfire, Mr
Clarke scoffed at ‘loony tunes’ critics.

'Pretty glib': Julian Hendy, pictured with his murdered father Philip, is unimpressed by Clarke's comments

‘He had no right to
insult Priti like that and will pay for it if he isn’t careful,’ warned
a fellow newly-elected female Tory MP.

And former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw says he fears Mr Clarke’s policies will lead to more lawlessness not less.

Film-maker
Julian Hendy, whose father Philip was murdered in Bristol in 2007 by a
mentally unstable man with a history of criminal behaviour, said Mr
Clarke ‘sounded pretty glib’.

Mr Hendy, who spent nearly three
years researching mental health homicides in Britain after the murder,
said: ‘I’d like to meet Ken Clarke to talk about the reality of losing
someone to someone who has mental health problems.

‘Every year,
100 people are killed by someone who has mental health problems. It
would be OK to release them if they were to get proper treatment – but
the system is simply not up to it.'